Blood on the Rocks
by Riley Killer
Summary: Honestly, hunters have been around as long as vampires. But with the changes that came with them coming out of the coffin, the occupation is dying, and so are it's employees. But when the job is your life, it's a lot harder to turn away from it.
1. Hallowhell

A/N: Alright, I'm still working on Guilty By Association, but I've recently gone to Cedar Point, and as I went through the 'Fear Fair.' The renaissance horror walk through they have there, this idea came and bashed me in the head. Due to my clothing at the time as well, the character quickly formed, and well. There you have it. I'll be going off of what ever story line is convenient, so shit may get screwed up.

Disclaimer: I do not own True Blood or any of the Southern Vampire novels. Or Cedar Point and I am making no money and am not trying to advertise them and what not! I also do not own C.M.C.C. she belongs to my college buddy.

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**Halloweekend = Hallow-hell**

My feet were killing me…

My eyes hurt from the sun….

It was too damn bright during the day honestly. I had long ago become accustomed to walking around at night. It was dark, cool, and usually dry then, if it wasn't raining. I liked it when it was dark; it was when I did my best work.

But right now it was just only starting to get there, it was edging close to seven P.M. but I had been here since eight in the morning. Just waiting… patrolling…

For what wasn't important right now, as it wasn't quite dark yet. Meaning I wasn't 'quite' on the clock yet. Whenever the sun was up, I wasn't working. So it was kind of a bummer to be in over time.

"My feet hurt!" A female voice murmured echoing my inner aching down in my lower limbs. Slowly I let my thoughts wander into an incoherent stream before I looked at my 'cover.' Cover meaning she was my excuse to be here. She was the way I was blending.

Though with her reddish brown butch cut hair with pink tipped bangs, gray and black striped sweatshirt, jeans, and bright orange flip flops, also my own shoulder length brown hair, with blue fronts and tips in the back, black iblis pants with red background and spider webs on it's pockets, then my TRIPP jacket that was black and looked like a cross between the nazi uniform and a straight jacket. I couldn't quite say we blended. Given the season the location was going into though, and the place I was currently patrolling. Who knows?

We were being paid to do this as it was, and what this was….

Well, I suppose I could say it was like a childhood dream, to hunt and patrol in an amusement park. Though technically with all the humans around, I couldn't hunt…. it would cause a panic.... Or a jeering crowd, you couldn't tell with people these days.

But anyways, patrolling in an amusement park now, particularly in THE Cedar Point, with it's massive amounts of people, rides, drunks, and constant blasting music through horrible speakers, at the age of 27, was starting to be one massive headache and stressful job.

And starting in the morning so early?

Ridiculous.

Vampires didn't start coming out until after dark. Which leads me to why I was at Cedar Point. It could be summed up in one word really.

Halloweekend.

It was starting to be my Hallow-hell. Halloweekend, was the time during the year where Cedar Point was open from early to midnight. (I usually wasn't awake till around Five P.M. so everything below that had become 'early' to me over the years), and after 5 o'clock in the afternoon, spooky shit began to happen. Haunted houses opened up, the staff pulled out their best masks and ghoulish make-up, while clowns took over 'Carn-evil' (Haha, cute. Not.) and the Fear Fair began.

Cutesy spooky stuff, 'thrills and chills' the monstrous roller coasters couldn't get out of you that could only be brought out through the spirit of Halloween. Good fun and games for you and your girl for the night, or the wife and kids. Stuff to get you a laugh and stuff to spend your money on.

I preferred the five-fingered discount, but then again, nobody is perfect. I knew for a face I sure as hell wasn't.

Now, usually, I wouldn't be here, I would be asleep, or getting ready to go out for the night. I wouldn't be sitting on a bench, watching as the Millennium Force claims another group of screams from riders as the roaring of the 'coater's cars passing by ripped through my ears.

I wouldn't be dressed like a vampire wanna-bee or V-bait, unless I was checking out a new club, or crashing a vamp's party.

I would be taking my good old-fashioned stakes, packing them up, grabbing my 9 mill. With the wooden bullets we had snagged from a Fellowship of the Sun shipment order. I would be walking to areas that held vampires, and I would be waiting till A:

One attacked me.

Or of course B: one attacked someone else.

Due to the whole fact of them coming out of the coffin though, we had to change the rules ourselves. And it was bad, as they knew it as well as we did. It was like playing a schoolyard game of tag. If I saw one 'tag' another human, I 'tagged' it with my stake. If it figured out exactly what I was on the spot, well, that was the same as out running me. We weren't allowed to attack unprovoked. So until I was 25, from the time I was 15, I was used to tracking, trailing, then attacking random vampires. It was absolutely stupid and barbaric, but ya know….

I stopped thinking about the morals of the job a long time ago. It was only in the past two years I started thinking of taking up a new occupation though.

"Hey Hey! Tracie! Are you listening to me?" I flinched as C.M.C.C.'s hand shot out and planted on my shoulder. Really, I didn't know her name; it was just what she told me to call her. And she was here to do her job just like I was to do mine. So there was no point in asking for any more detail. The less we knew about each other was probably the best thing for both of us.

"Yeah?" I questioned, looking slowly up from behind my glasses at her again. The sun was behind the horizon of the trees far in front of us, making me thank silently that it was going down. A feeling of anxiety was disappearing with it; I wasn't good at mingling with the daylight crowd.

"Carn-Evil is up and running now." She seemed confident of this; I had no doubt that she was though. See, C.M.C.C. had lived in this area for some time. One reason the family chose her as my cover. She had been here multiple times.

I lived nowhere IN Ohio; so going to Cedar Point was a first for me. Whenever times like this happens, we have guides, and thus, she was now mine. I actually lived in good, old fashion, New Orleans. A complete and utter vampire mecca.

I know.

Stupid and cliché' right?

Completely.

I hated the place myself, but it did give me a rather nice check at the end of the day. And this place right here, comparing it to New Orleans was making my dodgy and raggedy two-room apartment look like paradise. Though I suppose the tourists were just as bad as the vampires, either way, come sun down I was messing with one or the other.

"Tracie!" I was snapped from my thoughts again and then she pointed up, letting my eyes slowly move to the sky I fought back a small frown as it was turning into a dark blue rather fast. Soon this place would be holding many vamps, so the rumors said. Shifting in the black clothing that covered me from head to toe, including my neck, and wiggling my fingers as they were covered in their skintight black fingerless gloves, I felt excitement start to fill me.

It wasn't so much I loved my job. Trust me, I didn't. It was just how I was taught to live. I was told killing vamps was Good since I was a kid, and until they came out of a coffin, I had done so with out much contradiction of that fact, as they hadn't shown much 'Good' in themselves. Some of them. (A Lot) of them, still didn't.

But there were the occasional few I observed not glamour a human for a meal, or it was given to them out of adoration or love while hunting. Those I couldn't mess with, as it just…

Wasn't quite right to do so. I wasn't a very moral person, I stole, lied, and cheated, but then again, so did most politicians.

And we elected them.

But I suppose lying, stealing, and cheating to kill an already dead being is a little bit different. I didn't know really, for a very long time I was a simple drone, and except for the few vampires that I let go, as I would either see no reason to kill them, or just couldn't do it at the time because of how they were (attempting to 'mainstream' or such) I still was. I went where I was told, did my job, went home when it was over, used the check to restock the fridge, pay the bills, and then put the rest into savings.

I had enough money stashed because of this I could probably disappear. The family business was getting less and less variety in its choosing of hunters due to the fact vampires contrary to belief, DO most Definitely fight back against us. Since they came out of the coffin they had been able to pick us out bit by bit. They were known after all, we weren't. And that which isn't known and absent from daily life is most easy to go unnoticed. And for years that had been our strategy of attack. But now.... well...

It wasn't like we could come out though and say "hey folks, we kill the undead!" and receive a rather good response to it. It also wasn't like we killed in the name of a 'God' or because they were impure or some bullshit like that. No, in fact compared to all that complicated religion crap the family seemed relatively simple.

The family (we call it that because we have a habit of working much like the mob does) had started killing centuries ago because it recognized vampires as a threat to humans. It was that fact that was labeled on our family crest, and had been burned into my brain as my driving force for doing this job.

_"They are Dangerous and they feed off humans."_ As my mother would say every time I asked her why we did it. Even with the making of that nice, little, disgusting drink called Tru Blood, there was still no way in hell all the vampires were going to drink it immediately start to try and mainstream with society. Which was why I was at Halloweekend. Incase some vamp in a haunted house, or one that was dressed up to play for the employers of Cedar Point, or something revolving around this irritating little month long amusement park holiday, decided to put their fangs where they most certainly didn't belong. Though technically, with how I usually worked, I wasn't even the right candidate for this job.

The family usually would have sent someone who had been doing this for years, though I had the experienced, it wasn't in this field. (Meaning surrounded by crowds) They like I said, were down to slim pickings. And so they sent me into what we liked to call, 'A highly dangerous environment.'

Vampire bars, parties, brothels, nests. Oh no, those weren't dangerous.

Of course not, it was the fellow humans that posed the danger. Vamps couldn't openly kill us, and we couldn't openly kill them any more, as humans knew about vampires.

We didn't want them to know about us, as they were trying to be 'good' and we would be instantly shunned as a stain on their humanity.

There was tugging on my shoulder making me look up and stare immediately at C.M.C.C who was glaring at me now. Slowly I shoved myself to my feet, burning rushing to my senses from them telling me I had clearly over exerted them today causing a groan to exit from my barely opened lips. A cool breeze brushed against my face giving me some relief while my cover began to mumble about how I was so silent and broody. Looking over my sunglasses at her I blinked a few times and she shushed. My blue eyes then became lidded as I felt my breathing become soft and easy before looking up and around, as it was almost fully dark.

The excitement buzzing through me made my fingers go to the cheap knock off 10-dollar light saber on my hip through my belt loop. A random thought of how pissed George Lucas would be at seeing his creation so disgraced ran through my head pulled a small smile to my lips in the process.

It made me wish I had my silver staff with me though, nothing took out stress relief like beating something over the head and seeing their head smoke from it at the same time.

I was a truly morbid and cruel person, it was a fact I had long since made friends with though, and used it to my advantage. However I didn't think I was a 'bad' person though. More like a 'Good' person with many HORRIBLE faults.

One of those being I kill the undead.

Which by the way has no jurisdiction. One day I could be here in Ohio, the next day providing my job is done, I could be back in New Orleans or out in Texas. It didn't matter to the family, if there was a 'problem' (which my father would say, until the vamps are all gone, there always will be.) I would go or someone would go and take care of it.

Too large of nests, many missing humans in one town, dead bodies turning up from almost assured vampire killings.

One of us would go check it out, and if it Was a problem, it was taken care of.

If it wasn't, we left and headed out for the next one.

I just followed orders… I guess you could say stumbling around in the dark, is what I do. I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what I'm going to do, and I sure as hell don't know how I'm gonna do it.

In the end, I just follow what I'm told.

Which is why at 27 years old I'm walking around an amusement park with a rip off light saber thing in my hand, following a girl with bright pink tips who kept saying how I needed to talk more while my own blue streaks were brushed back by a wind that the great lake we were beside was so graciously supplying for us.

The old ways were changing, more so than they had been, and I was pretty sure soon the vampire hunter was going to be extinct. I just didn't know if I wanted to be one of the ones to go with it, or to hang up the stakes for good. The smart thing to do would be hang up the stakes, but since when does the average human do the Smart thing when it comes down to the fact what they're already doing is one of the only things they knew how to do?

I stared at the back of C.M.C.C's head and wondered briefly what a possible occupation for me might be. Something that would fill me with an adrenaline rush like right now was, and the excitement that I was so addicted to like a crack head to his cocaine.

Nothing in particular came to mind, but as this was only one of several other contemplated streams of thought I had been having since they came out of the coffin, it was no surprise to me. Vampires made it so any possible occupation for a vampire hunter was now more than likely Impossible to get.

But I could see why they would do it. Just as I would have probably done the same thing if I were to land in their cobwebbed filled shoes. I rubbed my face lightly and blinked as C.M.C.C. questioned if I would take my sunglasses off. Shaking my head I sighed.

Wearing sunglasses at night, having a Halloween themed holiday start in September, and vampires being known to humans, and trying to live with them instead of eat them. The world had changed rather quickly, and rather unfavorably towards people like the family and I in the past two years since the worldwide phenomenon had happened.

"Gym. Maybe gym." I grumbled softly looking up at the darkened sky now before C.M.C.C. turned and looked at me, she raised a thinned brow and slowly frowned.

"Gym?" I slowly blinked, shit, I said that aloud? I nodded to it anyways though as I might as well make it look like I completely meant to, "What about it?"

"Maybe I could teach that instead of doing this."

"Yeah, I don't think so…." Was the reply I got, I paused for a moment before letting my thoughts focus now as I was on the clock on my cover.

"And why not?"

"Well Tracie." I shoved my hands in my pockets as she began, as this should be relatively good. "A gym teacher can't have her head in the clouds."

"I'm on the job now, I'm focused." I replied very simply and easily, before she gave me a grin.

"And a gym teacher can't sleep all day."

…Shit.

She got me.

I scratched the back of my head for a moment in thought to this before shrugging.

"Night time security guard?"

"Now you're thinking." I ran my fingers through my hair distractedly now with a frown on my face as she continued to lead me towards what was known as Carn-evil, and let out a low breath.

12 hours of walking and the park closed at midnight. It was getting close to eight P.M.

Four more to go, and my feet were already screaming.

I was sure.

Halloweekend was definitely my Halloween themed Hell.

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A/N: Alrighty, that's the end of this chapter, I figured I might as well do another Eric/OC with a vampire hunter, because, well, ya know if one legend exists, the other might as well. So I'll be playing with good old Tracie in this, and seeing how it dishes out. Hope to hear your thoughts, and see ya next chapter!


	2. Club Blood

A/N: Thank you to **poplar-kat, Silver Huntress2**, and **SerenadeInTheMoonlight **for reviewing the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own True Blood or any of the Southern Vampire novels. Or Cedar Point and I am making no money and am not trying to advertise them and what not! I also do not own C.M.C.C. she belongs to my college buddy.

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**Club Blood**

**11:00 P.M.**

It was like your first hunt, being in an amusement park that was Halloween themed at night and looking for vampires. You couldn't quite tell who was and who wasn't undead. At least, not with out getting up close and looking at them… and none of them had been close enough for me to tell. But as an experienced hunter, I had gotten used to the signs. After all, humans and vampires had a completely different body language.

For starters, humans were always energetic in their movements; they were always animated in one way or another. Whether it is their face, their eyes, or their bodies, there was always some life in them. Vampires, the complete opposite. There was an eerie dark grace in their movements. Many times, unless it was hunger or amusement, or anger, their face and eyes were dead, and how they walked… it held an air of danger.

It was almost scary to know though after doing this for over 10 years, that my walk very similar to their own. And in no way did I find that a good thing… I shut my eyes and let out a low cough as a fog machine beside me went off again. The ghouls of the 'Fear Fair' (A renaissance walk through) leaving me be as they ran around scaring random bystanders. After they had tried a couple of times on me, they had quickly given up. So here I was, feet numb, body exhausted, nerves fried, and mind as sharp as a 4-year-old pencil sharpener at an elementary school.

_And still just an hour to go._ My mind sung making me let out a fake exaggerated sob. I wanted to go back to my hotel room, fall asleep, and just not wake up… I never wanted to come to this place again, and I never wanted to smell fake fog again either. I just hated this bloody place so much that I could have actually walked away from this particular mission.

Haha…

Lying to myself was the first signs that this mission was starting to get to me. I shook my head and shoved myself back to my feet, hands dipping into my pockets and letting out another loud groan as I moved quickly and briskly through another fog that was spat out by a fog machine. My eyes flicking up towards the sky in the process and slowly shutting my eyes to mimic the scene of its darkness behind them. Slowly I opened them after taking a few breaths before slowly continuing ahead. Honestly, this job took a large toll on you. If you weren't paranoid when you were younger, and started training for this job, you came out completely on edge, all the time, and always looked around you (subtly) so you could always see what might come at you.

I shivered lightly before letting my head as I stepped out of the 'Fear Fair' and spotted C.M.C.C running towards me. I tensed immediately and stared as she stood panting with her hands on her knees, gulping down air, before looking up at me and with a raspy voice gasping out, "I found one."

"…Found one what?"

"A vampire haunted house." Ahhh, that was right, I was tired of her complaining, so I sent her out to find me the haunted house most likely holding vampires. My hand came up and my fingers rubbed the inside of my coat, feeling the silver chain hidden with in it before I looked back at her in thought. Slowly I nodded and she stood up, taking a few measured breaths of course, before turning and leading me.

"What's it called?" I questioned lightly, eyes lidded and my adrenaline kicking in, my numb feet feeling like fire with each step. There was a pause before slowly she looked over her shoulder at me. Staring from behind her bangs, I saw her eyes twinkle with something.

"It's called Club Blood." I fought back the urge to roll my eyes.

Of course it was.

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If he said he wanted to be here.

He would be lying.

Eric Northman after all, did not Do amusement parks. With his slicked back blonde hair, and his sharp, intelligent, blue eyes, he was possibly one of the least likely candidates you would see riding on a ridiculous contraption like a roller coaster. Particularly when he could already fly. He also, in his jeans and tight tank top, seemed the more likely to be participating in an orgy than the fun and games that this place made for the sole purpose of taking your money.

So Why was he? Well that was an easy answer as well.

The queen had ordered him to. As of late, the childish adult had begun to think her underlings were too serious. Almost to bored with their undead lives. So with a talk to the right people, permission from the king of this area, and several of his own underlings working along side him, including the rather angry female sheriff of their area…

They found themselves here in this ridiculous place of fun and vomit, working a haunted house, all tempted by the stumbling hot-blooded creatures that walk by them. Scaring them with the simple appearance or a show of fangs. Enjoying the screams it yanked from women's mouths or yelps from men who sought to protect their women from the 'dangers of the night.'

He had a simple room, his fingers tapped together, fangs extended. And eyes watching through the fog as his form was hunched lightly against a rather extravagant (fake) Viking chair throne. He didn't find the joke funny, but he supposed there was no helping what the queen wished. His eyes shut for the time being as he heard a grumble of curses from the elegantly dressed woman beside him. The sheriff of the Ohio/Pennsylvania, Anita, rather perturbed and offended at being ogled by the humans. Clearly, they had very different ideas of how one should present themselves.

And her constant complaining was rather upsetting and annoying to him. He wanted… duct tape, is what the humans called it, to shut her up.

"Yo, boss, the next group's comin' in." Hissed out a 'guard', another of the king's men, from the right. He glanced over as this was nothing important, so he decided to ignore it for the time being, maybe it was just to tell them to get ready.

"What about them?" Anita breathed out, her low voice light and easy, rather pleasant… if you hadn't heard just it for the past three hours on a constant rant of bitching. He grunted and shifted lightly, a warning to the others.

"…There's a hunter in e'm." Quiet took the area over before he heard Anita laugh. His eyes narrowing immediately at this.

"I thought they were all dead." She breathed out with a low hissing chuckle. "I wouldn't worry about it, they are surrounded, and therefore is nothing a hunter can do in this place." She slowly stretched out her long arms and then arched her rather slip form before leaning back against her own elegant chair and crossing her legs. Smiling ear to ear as she spoke she curled her fingers, "Alright, let them in." The room got silent except for the music above head as the double doors, too low to the floor in his opinion, opened slowly and the group of humans, dazed from the strobe lights in the other room, stumbled in.

He watched them carefully now, his own thoughts wandering. A hunter, he hadn't heard that for many years, in fact the last time was maybe around 50 years ago. He was used to seeing them blend in, or try to at least, their covers scattering when things go tough, he remembered them all holding a certain charm with them, but also there was something about a hunter that made a vampire's blood heat up. Particularly the rather good ones.

The hunter was a rare breed. A human with a brain, seeing vampires not as beasts, or wicked creatures, but as threats. They were the basics of human, most were turned on the spot for their logical thinking, also to double as a punishment for their killings. Becoming the thing many had grown to hate was always a suitable hand dealt to the hunter.

But he too had not heard any activity of them in the past few years, particularly since the vampires came out of the coffin. He supposed they had all just given up, apparently that wasn't the case at all. He then found her.

Covered from head to foot in black, her neck covered, but only half way and her blue eyes showing boredom even as she was looking up, directly back at him. Her lips a simple line though and her form tensed. She knew she was with actual vampires now… he eyed her slowly, focusing on the charm she had around her neck. A dragon with red wings. It wasn't the charm of the hunter. He slowly looked away and then back at Anita who was still searching.

The hunter's eyes remained on him before looking slowly away though and he watched in the corner of his eyes as she took in the other at least eight vampires in the room. She heard the group continuing and slowly looked after it before turning her head to the human beside her. Grasping the hand she lead the pink haired tipped woman out behind her towards the exit of this room, staying with the group. Her walk fluid and darkly graceful, her gaze bored and the look on her face seemed almost annoyed.

Now he was intrigued… they had a habit of attacking on spot, he remembered that specifically. Each hunter all had their quirks, but all had used to attack with out being provoked and killed with out mercy. But here this hunter was bypassing them as easily as a rotten cabbage.

Shutting his eyes he leaned back and let out a breath, he sensed Anita's gaze on him instantly. "…Interesting."

"I don't see why." The female sheriff grumbled, "They just passed us like any normal human."

"Because they saw no threat." He replied opening his eye and looking at her, "They didn't attack because we didn't pose a threat." The quiet in the room held for a few moments before Anita grimaced.

"They're getting complicated again…" He could have laughed, but composure ordered him not to.

"We weren't attacking so they didn't seek to take us out." He explained briefly, amusement on the tip of his tongue drabbling his words lightly. The woman stared quietly before slowly shrugging and looking off to the side.

"They're idiots then. I figured they would have given up by now, or go join that ridiculous day light cult."

He shrugged at this and then shut his eyes, he was surrounded by stubborn idiots. Pam was out working the front of the building, and had no doubt spotted the hunter before she had been allowed in. But hunters weren't as easy as the Fellowship to spot, nor as simple to explain.

But he couldn't help but think, he was a little surprised they hadn't gotten desperate enough to go join that ridiculous religion as well. After all, they were a rare breed, and more importantly.

A dying out race. Gripping his chin and rubbing it, he decided after they were done at midnight, he would go and find the little hunter himself.

He had many questions for her.

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A/N: And that's the end of the second chapter, alrighty, I'm off to class now, hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you thought. Also, give me any suggestions you have on just about anything. I may have a poll or two going up for this story later. Later and see ya next chapter!


	3. Huntress

Disclaimer: I do not own True Blood or any of the Southern Vampire novels. Or Cedar Point and I am making no money and am not trying to advertise them and what not! I also do not own C.M.C.C. she belongs to my college buddy.

A/N: Thank you to **poplar-kat** and **SerenadeInTheMoonlight** for the reviews!

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**Huntress**

I sent C.M.C.C home with out me as soon as it struck midnight. My breathing was quickened with an animal like excitement. My form was tensed, ready to dart in, run… attack. The park moderator's badge I stole, on my shoulder making workers of the park pass me by as I was pretended to check over one of the cash boxes of a food stand across from the 'Club Blood.' They wouldn't attack during work hours… I had checked, everyone who had entered, had all exited.

I shut the box and took my time slipping it underneath the wooden shelf it had been hidden to begin with and slowly glanced over my shoulder… they were starting to come out. Turning my back to them, I kept my ears completely open as I shut my eyes and moved to the next booth, opening the register and slowly letting my fingers move over the money. Eyes lidded, I had no need to steal this money… the camera on the back of me was also a very persuasive tool… slowly I shut it before letting out a sigh.

They were gone…

Shit.

Casually I moved from the booth to the next, my ears capturing the sound around me before I heard a footstep. My hand clenched lightly inside my sleeve before I heard a shout. It was from one of the workers.

"Oi! We're shutting down! Go home!" I raised my head, staring at them before slowly nodding and shutting the register. I couldn't help myself; my hand had jammed a good bit of money into my sleeve before I did. Slowly I made my way for the entrance gate. The vampires no longer in my sight, where the fuck did they go!?

_This is not good, not good at all!_ My breathing was soft for a few moments before my mind immediately stopped it's frantic searching for what to do and narrowed into a focus. The lack of sleep and fatigue came crashing down on my form but through the focus I ignored it. My feet still numb as I pushed forward, breathing soft, body shaking lightly.

I heard footsteps and my head turned from behind me to see nothing and slowly glared looking at the ground. Was I hearing things? No… I exited through the gate of the park and then into the deserted, well, nearly deserted parking lot. A group of fine cars were lined up beside each other, a habit I knew vampires to take up rather quickly.

My stilled and slowly let out a breath. My eyes shut and my head bowed slowly before I felt that focus fading… the fatigue was great…

_Tracie._ My mind coached softly, soft like my mother's voice, soft like the wind, _Easy, you've been in worse situations, you've been in worse condition._ There was a low breeze and my eyes slowly opened to simply slits while it brushed against my face reminding me of her caress. I inhaled, then exhaled before slowly straightening and opening my eyes.

I missed them, they were still alive, but I rarely heard from them these days. I missed the days before I turned 15 and became a hunter; I missed the days where childish thoughts were all I needed to get through the day. Not having to worry about bills or getting my next meal, or hunting a vampire in the area down in order to get a check from the family to feed my face.

Growing up sucked, reaching up behind me I slowly found the stake as I moved to my motorcycle in the parking lot. It was a rental, but that was how I rolled, I liked Harley Davidson, there wasn't quite anything like the roar in your ears or the vibrations of the engine between your legs to wake you up. I couldn't feel my legs as it was though… I slowly took the stake out as I heard the crunch of glass.

My eyes shut and I reached into my pocket slowly. There was a tenseness in the air and my breathing became low as I grasped the black iPod and pulled the earplugs up into my ears. The world became muffled, another night breeze pressed against my face as I licked my lips to wet them.

I stared down at the screen as it lit up and my thumb drug slowly down it. The small white circle glowing from the bright screen before I winced and reached into my pockets. My sunglasses came out and I put them on… I really didn't like bright lights… My eyes weren't used to them and until earlier, I had been fine… but not during the day.

There were many things that took a toll on you in this line of work… I shut my eyes for a few moments then opened them a few seconds later and found the desired song.

The native flutes of Kat Deluna's "Animal" began in my ears. I shivered lightly as my hand stuck it in my pocket before tightening my hand on the stake. I wish I had brought the 9 mill with… but I had been worried about how it would screw up my balance.

"_I'm a warrior princess; I have got jewel eyes of an eagle  
Fly over-head, I see you coming; lioness ride out to hunt for my prize  
Its my ego, that won't let me bow down."_

Calming down I continued ahead towards my bike, my eyes lidded before another wind passed me. The smell of death riding on it.

"_Aye Aye Aye Aye Aye! Life is like a jungle  
Are you brave enough to walk in it  
Aye Aye Aye Aye Aye! Go around in circles  
Till you build your prowl."_

I paused and saw it move before I twisted. The vampire lunged and the stake shot up and into his chest directly. His eyes widening and his black hair hanging in front of his face. My face remained carefully blank as his mouth slowly opened. Blood splattered forward and onto me. I held back a small shiver as the cold substance moved down my face onto my neck.

"_Are you wild and dirty like an animal  
Can you growl and scream like an animal  
Baby go, go, go like an animal  
Tear it up, make a mess like an animal"_

It had happened many times before…. There was no stopping it really. I yanked the stake out, the Spanish lyrics echoing through my ears as I reached to my mouth and wiped the blood off it with the back of my hand. Moving quickly towards my bike now and straddling it.

The stake hot where I was holding it in my hand now before I yanked my iPod out of my ears and off before shoving it in my pocket and listening now, the sound of silence around me except for the gasping, sputtering, and coughing of the undead. I licked my lip, frowning immediately at the sweet bitter taste of fresh V before feeling my senses pick up. I fought back the effects with a low grow and reached into my pocket grabbing the keys to the bike.

A few moments passed as I got them out and shoved them into the ignition. With a twist the bike sprung to life as my feet planted safely on the ground to keep myself balanced. The quiet disturbed by a roar, the cars remained where they were. Shut off, quiet, dead, like they're owners. I felt another shiver go down my spine as I felt someone watching me before I looked to my left over the roar as something else caught my eye.

Hands grabbed me at the shoulders and I was thrown off. I let out a shout as I hit the ground and rolled. Using it to my advantage my left hand, holding the stake anchored on the ground and I shoved my form upward and my feet held a new pain in them. The female vampire stared at me with a heated glare.

The one that had been on the throne beside the blonde vampire that had been staring at me. She opened her mouth, fangs out and I watched carefully for a few moments before she disappeared from sight. My hand caught the silver chain in my sleeve and I yanked.

In a flourish of 20 dollar bills, it came out like a vicious snake, my eyes lidded as I heard her let out a groan and snarl of pain as she no doubt was hit by it as I gave a whip of my wrist making it go into a circle.

A thin silver chain was all it took really; it was all I ever used to when I didn't have my staff… I glanced at the bike 20 feet away from me, where my staff laid in a sidesaddle pack and fought back a grimace…

Now to get there and deal with the blood-sucking bitch in the process. I gritted my teeth and let out a hiss as my feet stung. I was glad the sunglasses hid my eyes for the time being as I watched her skin heal. The stake in my hand light but easy… it would do the job, but a gun would have done it better… I missed the good old 9 mill… it was also in my saddle bag.

Another appeared, then three more, the blonde and the woman who had not been at the front absent from this little group. No doubt watching somewhere, they had definitely been vampire. I could see it when they were eying me up once I was in the room.

"You're surrounded hunter." She-bitch I decided to call her growled out, her teeth showing in a feral grin. "No where to run…" I looked over my shoulder, then around.

She was right, there was nowhere to run. Slowly I let my fingers tighten on the chain and flick it lightly, it wavered like a snake. My breathing became calm and my focus returned from the instinct I had been running on. As crisp and clean as though I just got out of bed. Adrenaline moved through my veins and I slowly felt a grim smile pull to my lips.

"Yeah. There really is none." She glared at me before her smile widened.

I felt my training kick slowly in, the almost loving feeling of arms wrapping down over my shoulders coming into my senses before my arm shot back, the stake in hand as it launched up into one of the minor vampires guts. "…" I grabbed him from behind me. One hand up over my shoulder on his clothing, the other down at his hip. I felt my body protesting as I leaned forward and shoved my foot int o the ground, "GUESS I GOTTA MAKE ONE!" A cheesy line… but a suitable one.

He was coughing blood, raining it down on the ground (And me) as he flew over and into the vampires in front of me. Using their moments of pause I launched forward and over the corpse, moving to my bike.

20 feet to go….

10…

5…

My hand slammed onto my saddlebag and I wrenched it open. My breathing soft as I saw the gun standing with its butt presented. My hand grabbed it and the slim silver bar in hand in my other hand. The chain forgotten momentarily before I heard a hiss behind me. I twisted, leaning against the fallen back and my foot slamming up immediately into the She-bitch's chest. Her eyes widening as I felt a feral grin pull onto my lips.

I hated this job, but that look of pure shock at prey fighting back, that look of a vampire being threatened by something so minor as a human, was pure heroine to me. I think it was how they felt, to be feared, but respected.

I didn't know, and I didn't care… The right now small but heavy bar in my hand slammed onto her face and she let out a scream rolling to the side. I wouldn't kill her yet, I had to retrieve the stake for that or shoot her, and I would rather use it on her two underlings… the third now fully done puking out everything in his system.

The chilled and now disgustingly warming blood on my form ignored as I slowly got to my feet. My legs aching in protest. I felt another grim smile pull to my lips in the process and gave a flick of my wrist with the staff. One side shooting out from the momentum before I repeated the process with the other side.

The silver contraption starting to heat in my hands just as the blood was on my body. My mind was hazy and high with adrenaline and morbid satisfaction at the creatures in front of me dying. Old teachings and wisdoms from my family, the Adams family, racing through my head.

My conscious was chanting against it though, but my body moved forward as I began to run at the other two.

_What a horrible person._

In their shock the first of the two fell to the staff itself ripping up through his chest. The lightly sharpened edge of the staff yanking out of him and then with a twist dislodging his head.

_So much blood and gore, look at that, I think that's intestines. What a horrible thing to do._

The second was coming at me, and She-bitch was on her feet again. As I spared a glance at her, hands found my shoulders and a mouth opened. I felt my voice cut into a scream as their mouth clamped onto my throat. Sucking, drinking.

My mind broke into a panic, their form keeping my own to them. My hands bangs and scratched, the pole abandoned. My hand found the butt of the gun.

My metal state immediately stilled as I slammed it against their head. Their mouth yanking from my neck and my warm blood coming down slowly onto my throat and shoulder. I slammed the front of it against their chest though and rage started to cloud into my high.

The second vampire fell to a wooden bullet in the heart, too light of a punishment to his crime if you asked me. But I didn't care as She-bitch was staring at me wide eyed. My hand came down and I grasped the pole from my crouch. The gun returned to my holster as I felt the bite.

_Getting distracted and nearly getting killed, disgusting._

My body was burning with the anger in me, my lips pulled into a single line though and I began forward quietly. She didn't back a way, she watched, slowly tensing. I felt that excited high return to me.

_So easily dissuaded by violence, you're as much as a monster as they are. You even walk like them._

The small voice was pushed back and silenced by the quiet of the parking lot and the sound of my own heart beat thrumming in my head. The blood on me felt as though it was boiling, the sweat pouring down my face nonexistent. The wind that brushed against me feeling as cold as ice.

The thrill of the hunt, the adrenaline in my veins, the pounding of my heart in my head….

It was most certainly my heroine. Something I could never get with leaving this line of work, something I never wanted to leave behind. I felt my breathing steady on its own accord as the vampire continued to watch. Her bright angry undead eyes taking in my blood stained and shaking form. But not shaking with fear, I was shaking with anticipation.

"…You like killing my kind. Don't you hunter?" She spoke to me. The feeling of her breath was almost like a hot wave of steam over my skin. Though she was so far away, "You like seeing us throw up our insides and covering yourself with our blood like some freaky war pain, Don't You!?"

I felt my breathing stop, allowing her to see me pause for thought. I saw a blank look come to her face before I slowly shook my head.

_It disgusts me really._

"No." I smiled grimly at her, "I don't like that." She tensed as I felt my hand move to my gun, pulling it out and aiming at her. "…Cause that's the dirty part of this job."

I watched her eyes widen as the wooden bullet implanted in her heart even as she moved towards me. I felt the high leave me as the last of the 'threat' quickly began to fade and moved slowly to her. Her eyes staring up at me with disgust and hatred. I felt my fingers come up and pull the sunglasses away from my eyes and we made eye contact. I let out a low breath.

"…In fact… I don't like this job at all." It was honest, despite everything I felt when doing it, I didn't like the job, the thrills though… were addictive. I was like a druggie that was unable to attend a rehab, at the mercy of my own love for that substance that got me high. "…But.. I can't really leave it either."

Her eyes flickered with something, as the last of her undead life began to fade away. It made me blink and frown lightly, pulling my sunglasses back on.

The undead were capable of pity it seemed. Moving towards my bike, I felt my stomach churn and leaned over, emptying the contents of my stomach out onto the parking lot and my breathing becoming heavy and ragged as the fatigue returned with much more force now that my high was gone. I hated the ending effect, every time with out fail, I threw up. Out of disgust, exhaustion, over load of emotions, who knew?

I lifted the bike up, happy I paid for the insurance on it and slowly shoved a leg over it after shrinking the bar and shoving the gun and it back in the bag. Slowly I leaned over the bars of the bike. Then started it back up.

I wouldn't worry about the puke from myself, it would be just some random thing more than likely. I would worry about the two that hadn't shown up in this little group….

Right now though there was a hotel room calling my name that had a purposely-unlocked window that was going to allow me to sneak in unnoticed. And a bed that never had looked better. Shoving a helmet over my head, no doubt getting blood on it, I began back towards what I would call till the next time I woke up, paradise.

* * *

**A/N:** Now, that's the end of the third chapter, I'm gonna work on a different story tomorrow since I don't' have class till six, but if I get enough input on this chapter, I'll be movin' a little faster to get the other chapter done for that story and get the fourth up for this one. So tell me what ya all though and such, and I'll see ya next time hopefully! OH yes, before you ask, next chapter WILL HAVE ERIC'S REACTION. So till next time, later!


	4. Beauty in Brutality

**A/N:** Thank you to **poplar-ka**t, **Rebecca, nicolias** and **Silverhntrss** for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the southern vampire chronicles but I do own Tracie Adams and her family.

* * *

**Beauty in Brutality**

Eric was having mixed feelings about what he just witnessed. With in a span of 10 minutes, he had watched a single human, food, if you will; destroy a small group of vampires. He had watched her rip a head from its shoulders, stake and throw a reanimated corpse through the air, become bitten and attack with a rage…

Animal viciousness.

A killer's cunningness.

And a beast's swiftness.

He slowly smirked, what would it be like to have that human in his grasp? Feeling the last bits of her life drift away as he drank her dry, struggling, attempting to escape him.

He'd forgotten how skilled the old hunters had been, how hard they worked to become proficient vampire killers. It was almost a shame that such beautiful beasts were dying out, while their own race was starting to thrive all the more while out in the open.

People who willingly wanted to become vampires were showing in hordes. The younger vampires turning them on a whim, the elder ones only taking the best candidates.

She was most certainly amongst those candidates, he wondered for a moment what it would be like to share a bond with a hunter. To feel such anger and lust for killing of his own kind, to feel it so vividly… He'd never bonded with one before.

Slowly he moved out into the parking lot from his car, Pam following him from the minivan that was sitting farther away from his own car. He moved slowly towards the area of carnage, the female now gone completely from the area but her completed task there for all to view. It was messy, but it did the job… he felt something underneath his foot and immediately yanked back staring down at the long silver chain that had been hidden in her sleeve.

A minor weapon compared to the staff she had kept with her bike, her entire body was trained. Her sixth sensed trained to feel out and catch anything that was coming at her, thus the lack of need for her hearing before she was attacked. She wasn't very old though, the last hunter he had seen, or rather, dispatched himself to the afterlife had been around their 50's.

His disgust was made apparent as he stared at the bones that were drenched in the blood and the bits of muscle and tissue sticking to them. He saw the blood coated stake over to the side and slowly frowned as there were small wooden pieces hanging out around where the torso had been to Anita's chest. He walked over and crouched down, inspecting them before slowly blinking.

He quickly stood up, making sure to get no actual blood on his shoes as he approached his car, a nice sleek convertible. Slipping inside it, the top still up obviously, he looked at Pam. "Head back home." He ordered, she stared at him and nodded. Starting the car up and opening the window, he took a long inhale. The hunter's scent in his nose before he pulled through his parking spot and headed for the exit of the parking lot. It was time for him to hunt now.

* * *

I let out a breath as I hefted myself up and over the windowsill before falling onto the floor of the hotel room. My breathing soft as I slowly rolled onto my back, which wasn't thankfully, as bloody as my front. Quietly I stared at the ceiling, a minor feeling of annoyance rolling from me before I shut my eyes and let out a low groan. My hands began to clench and unfurl from fists to flat before I let out a breath and sat up. There was a quiet around me that was annoying as well as heart breaking. I pulled my shoes off, the blood on my face now sticky, and crusting. I hated blood; it was such a pain in the ass to get off once it was dry. It was something it and semen had in common when I thought about it.

I felt my bare feet now touch the hard, coarse, texture of the carpet beneath me and moved towards the bathroom. Honestly, hotels were all about creature comforts as it was. But it wasn't comfort I was after right now, it was all about getting clean. My entire attire needed to be cleaned, and from experience the bathtub was my most useful source.

I cleaned everything in there after a killing. My hands worked as I moved towards the bathroom, pulling my clothing off piece by piece. My favorite jacket, my t-shirt, my bra – everything. I watched as it all fell into the bathtub and shut my eye lightly before looking slowly around. I needed to shut the window before I continued… this wasn't a household, and I wasn't the head of it either. So an open window was a danger on it's own. I turned, ignoring my naked state and headed towards the window.

My arms rose above my head and I grasped hold of the window panel before pulling it down and moving to lock it. There was a shift to my left as soon as the two sides of the window made contact as I closed it. I paused, my eyes narrowing and staring down at something that was beside my bike. Something that hadn't been there before.

Shit. The nice black convertible was familiar to me… a flash of it standing with a few other nice cars from the parking lot made my eyes widen and tense. There was a soft sound from the corner and I turned towards it immediately. Pain ripped through the side of my face, my feet left the ground and I slammed into floor and rolled.

The air was still in the room before I let my vision come back as my assaulter paused. My breathing was soft before my hand came up and I lifted. My head hurt, "Augh…." I covered the cheekbone that had just no doubt taken the brute of what it could. The sound of a breath made my eyes slowly lock onto the shoes in front of me. They shifted, my form rolled to avoid the stomp coming down before I was up. My body shivered lightly from its nude state before I rubbed the blood coming down from the corner of my mouth.

"…This is a first." I admitted aloud to the vampire standing five feet from him. His face was expressionless, the blonde king from the haunted house. His sharp blue eyes glittering with intelligence and his lips still a line. I hated not being able to see their expressions, but being dead as it was… well they didn't feel much as it was.

He spoke however, surprising me, "I have never heard of a hunter being caught naked and unarmed…." I felt a shiver go down my back and my nipples harden from the cold, my eyes shut for a moment and I felt breath on the back of my neck, "Nor one so stupid as to let a vampire in their room." My heart began to slow, my eyes became lidded, my body began to relax completely where I stood.

I twisted, my eyes narrowing and my elbow aiming for his temple. His eyes brightened as we made contact before I felt an arm around my waist and the hand wrapping around the inside of my elbow. My back met the floor and I ducked my head to cover my neck instead of arching. His arm still wrapped tightly around my waist before I felt my face turn into a scowl. "You gonna kill me vampire?" He looked back.

And then he smiled, "Well that would ruin it wouldn't it?" I felt my mind still, ruin it… what the hell was he… talkin' about? My body curled, his eyes widened as my thigh hooked underneath his neck and the other rested on the back. His eyes narrowed, my own flashed.

CRACK!

The sound of the vamp's neck breaking brought a cold feel of delight after the rapid yank and pivot of my hips. I felt his arms loosen, and my form slipped down and away from him before rolling and getting to my feet. Dizziness moved through me as I stood and I shut my eyes tightly before stumbling to the bathroom. He wouldn't be down for long though… my eyesight was getting blurry… I paused, then looked down and froze.

…He had bitten me. I hadn't felt it and he had bitten me… shit. I glared lightly and slowly shut my eyes and rested against the doorframe before continuing in. My hand reaching forward and grabbing my jacket. I pulled it forward, praying the blood wasn't crusted before starting to suck in as much as I could. The bitter liquid turning sick. Disgusting, I fucking hated downing V when I was in a tight space like this. It was something we had learned to do though. I pulled my bloody pants and my jacket back on as my sight was coming back then found the gun in the saddlebag that was thrown into the corner of the bathtub.

The gun in hand, I moved back slowly to the doorway connecting the bathroom to the living room and shivered. Safety turned off with a flick of my finger, I tensed before his voice spoke again. It was across the room.

"So you use your enemies blood when you've been harmed… you hunters are practiced…" I ignored the voice as I shut my eyes and my hearing tried to pinpoint where he was. "You've even trained with it I think…"

Who gave a damn about what he thought? I felt my body ripple as I tensed like an animal and opened my eyes.

"So tell me hunter." He appeared five feet ahead of me and his hand clenched lightly. I felt my form shiver in the thoughts of my death being caused by this creature. It might even be most suitable, he was a pretty thing. I felt no fear though as I stared at him, face taut and filled with grim anticipation. My eyes no doubt emotionless and my body expressionless….

"Why do you kill vampires?"

"…" I blinked at this and felt my guard pause for a moment before reinforcing and thinking, my head tilted to the side and I felt the gun's weight in my hand all the more as my skin pressed to it before I blinked once again and felt a small smile on my lips.

"Good question."

* * *

He blinked as her eyes twinkled with something and she almost gave him a grin, her teeth showing lightly, "But all vampires know the answer to that."

Yes… He slowly nodded and moved; slowly circling the woman donning the blood splattered black clothing. Blue eyes lidded as they followed him, breathing soft. Not a hole in her guard, not a fault in her body's toning or flexibility… No faults at all…

Except that she was human. He looked back at her before feeling something in his mind stir, the fascination with this creature oddly placed but also interestingly so. So willing to kill him, so willing to be killed by him. He stopped and her form remained where it was, him having no doubt he could lunge and kill her from his position, no matter where he was in the room. Her eyes telling him she knew this, as well as she knew how to stop him. The fire in her eyes made a stirring in his loins and the thought of preying on her all the tempting.

He watched her eyes brighten, "You wanna feed on me vampire?"

"Does it entice you to know if I do?" The quiet that held between them made his eyes narrow as her lips pull into a feral grin and her features hold a dark animal like look.

"It excites me." Was the amused reply. Excited her? He didn't exactly know what about just going to be killed by a vampire would kill someone. He found himself perplexed before watching her eyes narrow on him for a few moments. "So, you gonna come at me or not?"

He felt his mind pause completely on this creature before focusing in. "…I apologize, I usually do not play with my food."

"It's alright, I don't have conversations with my prey." Another pause before he smiled slowly, prey huh? It amused him that she would call vampires prey. Her eyes almost coaxing him to come forward. The tension in her body made him think of a deer about to run, her heart beat was audible to him and the smell of her own blood that had been on her lip, now on the back of her hand, sweet and delicious.

He lunged immediately. The speed between them too quick to catch, his body stopping completely though as something pressed against his chest and heart. The point of her gun… and he was betting wooden bullets.

And to think, he was a good few inches from her neck. He watched her eyes flick to his own, staring without fear and without contempt. Cold, and emotionless… but a small smile on her lips.

It was a draw for tonight. He could of course kill her, but not right now… he would wait another night and try then. It was his duty now as a vampire to kill her as punishment for her crimes… but if she was in his jurisdiction, it might be easier… he began backwards away from her. Her eyes following him, studying his every movement, her hand still positioned on the gun and to his heart. He moved five feet away before studying her relaxed form.

He glanced up at her face again and saw it hadn't changed; the smile almost spoke of sadness… he shoved it out of his mind, opening the window and jumping out with the need to get to his own hotel before sun up. He found a smirk on his lips though as he entered his convertible and held a few strands of her hair in his hand. Her scent in them. He would track it, he would find her, and he would face her again.

When he wasn't too busy of course.

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**A/N:** This one was a pain in the ass to write, I'm falling between the drama of one story, and this, then a few other things going on. (Like the various essays I was banging my head against the wall over for the week.) So yeah, you've read, review. Please, and I'll see you next chapter hopefully.


	5. I Need Overtime Pay

**A/N:** Thank you to **Poplar-Kat, Kate, Nicolias**, and **SerenadeInTheMoonligh**t also to **SharkGurl, Tsumi **and **ilove-itasaku-90** for reviewing. Also thank you to those who added this to their alert lists. Hope you enjoy this next chapter. Also, in "were" referring to shape shifters, the "w" will be capitalized.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the southern vampire chronicles but I do own Tracie Adams and her family.

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**I Need Overtime Pay…**

-+_Six Months Later…._+-

_I could really use a stiff one right now. Or a good lay._

This was my thought as I stared about at the massacre that had just taken place close to a little town called Shreveport. My eyes lidded as my feet moved me through the house that a group of hunters had infiltrated and attempted, mind you, to exterminate a rather interesting nest of vampires.

Their innards hung from the chandelier though and their blood coated the walls. A very good indication that the mission they were attempting failed horribly. My eyes flicking around as each gruesome sight was locked into my memory, this was always a good indication of what could very well happen to me, should I not pay attention and be extremely cautious as well as careful in my job. Just in case I wasn't though, the gun strapped to my hip and the hand on my silver pole that wasn't carrying my Nikon digital camera was my prep for any attacks that might come my way. Whether it be day or night, it didn't matter, one best be prepared for such missions and ventures through houses of this nature that housed such beasts.

Though I wasn't quite sure whom the beasts in our own little planet called Earth, were, any more.

The smell of the death that hung in the air, accompanied by smell of rotting, degenerating flesh, metallic salty drying blood, and every other scent one might associate with the umbrella term, "death," was so familiar to me that I was able to block it out as it burnt my nostrils like a freshly opened can of coca-cola when you inhaled on the first sip through your nose on accident.

Thankfully I was long since used to this stench and let out a low breath as I took another picture of a decapitated head, not bothering to recognize the face. The body I had no doubt was no longer existing, vampires were usually pretty violent when they put in the effort.

_ Click._

_ Flash!_

Becoming cold to death was something I found almost to easy to do now. Prey's reactions were all that mattered, and prey wasn't in here. So gathering up photographical evidence of who was dead and who wasn't was the primary objective I had now. As the people that were dead, unless they became undead, were no longer of my family's', or any of the hunting families concern any more. A candle would be lit, and they would be remembered for a second, before we all moved on to our chaotic, regimen of hunting, exterminating, and disappearing as we had been doing for years.

But hey, at least the same discourse that carried on in my job, carried on in my bosses and at home in the family. I couldn't say that I was too surprised though, that over the past six months since the Cedar Point job, things had gotten rather messy. The Light of Day folks were becoming suspicious of trickery, finding their supplies on a shortage, the vampires had gone into several covered up killing sprees of our own people, making the amount of us was getting downsized drastically with each month, and now our prey was expanding, thus the knowledge of us as well. This was nothing new; prey expanding was of course what was going to happen with vampires turning others on a whim. However the killing sprees were a problem…

This was the part of the job I didn't like. Vampires, hunting them was fine for me, they were cold, dead, and as I saw it, mere shells filled with dark amusement of their former selves, which showed only flashes of what I deemed to be ghosts of once human emotion. I would play by the simple rule that I had that one could call close to a moral for my job since the discourse had started.

_"When they are a threat, they shall be exterminated. Until then, they shall be left alone."_

But now there was an issue with the Were population, becoming involved with the vampire population… the ice that kept hunters far between simple murderers that toured the country sides unorganized, and the individuals we had today, who followed orders and did check ups, instead of killing without judgment of the situation, was getting thinner and thinner with each passing day.

_ Click._

_ Flash!_

I blinked the spots in my sights that came from taking another picture as I looked at a woman's body. The sign of the hunter, (an odd symbol we held sacred for some reason, since the first vampire) long removed from her and no doubt it was given to someone else. That, or a vampire took it as a trophy of sorts. Just as we had our own traditions and prides, they had theirs. I shrugged to myself, as it wasn't my problem as I moved on throughout the house, moving upstairs now and taking my gun slowly out after retracting my pole. Better safe than sorry.

Another thing that had happened was the Light of Day was starting to notice that their weapons were going missing. Our raids of their supplies were getting fewer and fewer, and to make things worse, we almost had a run in with them when one of our hunters was tracking down a particularly vicious Were. Just as vampires did, it seemed they also had their rogues. Risking exposing the Were him/herself, to the Light of Day, and us at the same time.

My higher ups said that one was okay, the other wasn't. However I had to quite disagree… and this was the first of what I was starting to notice was my issues with what my bosses stated. Originally, we had begun to hunt Vampires, and that was it, because vampires were a threat. However now that we were dying out, I was seeing how the uppers were becoming more desperate, hunting Weres, and anything that was even a remote threat to us. And slowly losing concern for the actual victims that we were attempting to keep the "threats" from. The humans that were deemed threatened.

Perhaps I didn't have as much issues with losing this job than I originally thought, but maybe it had to do with the fact I didn't like the spilling of _warm _blood. Cold blood, vampires, at times monsters that eat humans, sure, game on.

But a Were… a Were was still human in some ways, they changed sure, they were more animal than anything, and they because of this, Were more superior to the humans…

But they weren't dead yet. I shut my eyes as my mind was very conflicted over the matter. Bitching about the differences between proper prey and stupid prey. Going after the Weres was stupid, we would look no better than common murderers and be no better than the vampires we hunted down. However if they were threatening humans as vampires did, there was a need to exterminate those that fell out of line, just as with vampires. Yet vampires threatened humans when needed to depending on several things, whether it be blood, pleasure, or cruelty… a Were… if he was threatening a human…

What reasoning besides food was there really? A human threatening them perhaps, with extremist like the Light of Day, it was highly likely and possible, yet at the same time, what was the proper reasoning…

And did it matter much and hold great relevance to me…?

I glanced over my shoulder as I heard a bottle rattle and spotted as a rat darted across the carpet of the floor. My eyes lidded for a few moments and then looking up and around again as the light shined into the dark house still. I would rather do this in the day when there was little to no chance of having a meeting with a nocturnal blood sucker, than at night where I would definitely have such a meeting and would be screwed if something was still undead in this house.

There were rumors of reinstating the old rules too for the footmen, like me. The kill on sight in particular, was a hot subject. Which confused me, sure I was only a dog here, doing as my master bayed, going to my jobs, killing my targets. But my targets were the _dangerous_ vampires. Not the vampires that were minding their own business attempting to mainstream. Killing them without thought and proper procedure would cause us to not only be exposed, but once again seem like common murderers.

_Technically you are._ My mind stated very simply and I sighed as I reached another room and opened the door, wincing at the body on the bed, clawed, blood dried and crusted to it, hair ripped out of it's skull, and mangled in the face beyond recognition. Raising my camera I snapped another picture, then grasped the dog tags that still laid on the body, yanking them off with a grunt and shoving them in my pocket.

It always helped to have one's dog tags on when one hunted, if said one died, it made the person (me in this case) that came after the incident to do a report, much easier to tell who got wacked. After doing this, I turned to the closet, a common place for a body to be stashed, and opened it to inspect.

There was more intelligence in my 'murdering' so to say, as well as purpose, and also the killing of a vampire was not as great as the killing of a human in my mind. No matter how much the media would like to disagree, as humans were food to the vampires. Somewhere in my fucked up logic of this world, what I was doing, killing vampires that attacked humans, made sense. But it was when the higher ups talked, or decided to change the rules of the game that I found myself confused, conflicted, and attempting not to be pulled to different sides.

I decided, as I took the last picture, after I had uploaded these photos to my higher ups, I was going to the nearest damn bar and getting a scotch on the rocks. That or some wild turkey. I just needed something to make my mind shut up for a few hours. Booze seemed to have the trick of doing just that when I needed it to, and being well of age to drink, (27 mind you, and in hunter years, that could sometimes be discerned as 74 given the amount of missions one has done mental wise) right now, I could do well with one.

Turning on my heel and moving out of the room, down the stairs and towards the back door I took one more moment to look up and around, before sighing and exiting the back door while shoving my camera into my coat. My feet carried me forward into the over grown grass that took up the backyard before I let out a low sigh of relief as the fresh air began through my nostrils clearing away the stench that was in the house.

Really, as it was a vampire nest, the only reason it hadn't had human inspectors yet was simply because they didn't know there were people that were dead. It had only been three days, and sometimes such things went up a month before the smell was starting to be blamed on the actual building.

Looking up towards the slowly falling sun, I took great joy in the fact that I was doing this during the afternoon. Not dusk, not night, the afternoon. Where no jeeper creepers could come after me…

Unless it was the legit Creeper… but we wouldn't get into that. When I thought about it though, with the creatures that were alive in this world, I didn't want to even _think_ about the possibility of something like that freak even existing.

_You know what._ _Enough thinking. Upload then Alcohol._ Sighing lightly I nodded to my mind and moved over the fence the house had, and into the alley behind it. Nests usually had a fence of some kind in it, mostly because when wanting to, and the vampires behaved themselves, they needed the privacy for wild parties. That was my experience anyways. As far as my footprints and fingerprints, I never really needed to worry about that. The family had always had their ways of making sure their footmen and information's gatherers had their ways to dodge the system.

We were like the mob in that sense, only older really.

I was happy to see my Harley that was my transport here was waiting right where I left it. Digging in my jacket, a rather nice leather one this time around, and pulling out my keys I smiled to myself as I shoved them in the ignition after throwing a leg over and straddling my baby after grabbing the helmet from the back and shoving it over my head. Without twisting the key yet, I placed the Nikon in my pocket into my saddle bag, then followed with my gun. I placed my pipe on my belt loop though. With how fast some of the vamps were, I wasn't' going to chance shit going down while I was on my bike.

Being attacked by a vampire's bad enough, but being attacked going 50-60 miles per an hour, (though since this Was a motorcycle, 70-80) well that's just as bad as being ambushed really. Twisting my keys, the vibrations that shot up through me were pleasant, and a welcoming new reality away from the place I had just walked out of. Placing one foot up on I turned the handle, the bike jerking to life as I moved my other foot up and soon shot out of the alley onto the street. Something stupid and reckless but as I still had to have a hotel room here in this place. Well I might as well be a little stupid. While the sun was still up, I could afford to usually.

As long as the human authorities weren't around to give me problems anyways, and every now and then, they were. I was no perfect citizen, but everyone had their faults, also…

They would have to catch me first, and if I got caught, once again, it would be sort of pointless… I did not live outside the law, I just didn't follow it with everyone else. That was what I told people anyways that were part of the family, or even those that were part of the occupation, and just starting out.

Those were the majority that were getting killed though, the middle ground, myself and those of my age, were off the lesser orientation when it came to hunters. The elders who were in their 50's and the youngin's who were in their 19 – 25's, they were the ones getting killed off.

What this meant for me at the moment? As I found myself on a street and seeing something that caught my eye to the side, making me slow down considerably to stare at it as I passed.

Not a damn thing.

However the vampire bar I just went by was Very interesting... I in general, did not go to vampire bars, or vamp owned establishments unless of course, I was ordered, they could always tell when they had been wronged by a human, and killing them for a living, well that I would definitely clarify as wrong in their book. So if I was off duty, goin' to such places would be more awkward, than entertaining.

Many of the vampires, rumor had it, thought us so inferior that we were just livestock really. I wouldn't say it was rumor simply because it was true, humans were inferior to quite an extent. However, that a human could be personal property to vampires, as any live stock could to a human, it was no wonder really that when a human killed a vampire, they considered it wrong. Just like when a cow defending her baby perhaps, trampled over a human.

Either way it mattered not to me. The morals, or lack of in the undead's world were of no real concern to me unless it came to the people they were threatening. I was practically the vampire hunter's oldest line in the book, something that was overdone and over played, sold in a brand new packaging with a pretty face.

_It's the song of my life though, oh well whatever way the wind blows._ I muttered to myself turning a corner and soon coming to the Ramada I had decided to stay at. Ramada was the usual motel I took home to when ever I had a mission, mostly because of how cheap it was compared to somewhere like a Holiday inn. It was usually quiet, and easy, with an AC that had the levels low, and freeze you to death as your only options. They were oddly comfortable though, so I had long since taken a liking to them.

Others of my particular "Craft" would disagree with me, some of them liked to stay in really high class places… the thing was though, the cheaper it was, I found the more low profile it turned out to be as well. Like I said though… other's would disagree.

Those hunters and I just ignored each other…

Slowly I came to a halt in a parking spot after turning into the parking lot, my hand turning the keys on instinct so the bike turned off before letting the kick stand drop and swinging a leg over. Digging in the side saddle, I pulled out the Nikon and my gun, it wasn't something I wanted to leave for some curious kid or dumb ass that decided it'd be nice to check out the luggage on my Harley.

Years of mistakes when I had first started out taught me the do's and don'ts of hunting. Many would call me cocky because of this, however I wouldn't say I was, I had a way I did things, and anyone else that ordered me to do different, well…

For good reason, no one did that any more. That was the sign of a _good_ hunter, at least my superiors used to tell me when they criticized me in my late teens, when a good hunter isn't questioned any more, or criticized, it means they've made their standards satisfactory for their uppers. And thus any mission was pretty much trusted to them on most occasions.

I would not be lying though, if I said I preferred these follow ups to the actual hunting. I was good at it, as was anyone who lived as long as I did. The real people I admired in skills were those that made it past 50, and they were far and few between. However follow ups took place in the day, they were safer, they didn't have me constantly on guard, except for perhaps the cops or the oddball creature that showed up.

While they were more preferred though, nothing could give me that high, hunting could provide. Standing and staring death in the fact himself though, it had a habit of doing that.

It was one of the few things that made hunters dangerous I thought anyways. My hand reached the front door of the Ramada, the helmet now underneath my arm after being removed, before I entered the building and let that odd hotel smell fill my nostrils. My eyes turned towards the woman at the front desk that looked at me, we didn't' say anything as I quickly looked away, heading back towards my room. As far as she knew, I was just another paying customer, with no real purpose except a bill to pay and a room to fill.

The only down fall with the Ramada was there was no mini bar though, something that would do me quite a bit of good right now. I would prefer to just stay in the room and drink, while watching the news or checking the recent orders that were placed up by the uppers on our private site, on my laptop I brought with me.

_This job causes too much work… _Not that I really cared. Slipping the hotel key forward into the card slot, I heard a beep that permitted me entry, turning the handle and moving in, I threw my helmet onto the bed that was precariously laid ahead of me. My eyes were lidded as my feet thudded lightly against the ground with each step I took. The carpeting doing little the muffle them, but that was fine, from what I could tell, I was alone at the moment.

_Now upload them, and then, a drink._ I let out a breath as I bent down next to the bed, grasping hold of the silver colored brief case that was hiding underneath it before yanking it out and letting it down on the bed with out much thought. Slowly I placed the combination into it, 4,5,1,0 then watched it pop open. The MacBook Pro that stared back up at me made a small smile come onto my face.

At least in most cases, as far as technology, we were well funded. Also it was a security issue, there was many companies that made software for PC, so they were easier to catch viruses, be hacked, and in the past, we just didn't have as easy as a time with them as we did with Mac. I personally liked both equally, Mac was good for business, PC was good for gaming, something I did now and then when I had time to kill.

_Maybe I should do that instead of going and getting a drink…_ I mumbled inwardly as I pulled the screen of the laptop up and pressed the corner power button that seemed to blend in with the rest of the operation console. The welcoming sound of an apple computer powering up came to my ears and I shut my eyes while shoving the case backwards, further towards the middle before sitting down after kicking my shoes off. Digging in my pocket, the Nikon was dropped next to the case while I stared at the screen as it lit up and glowed blue. A few seconds later I was typing in my password, and staring at the desktop background of a blood red moon that lit up the night sky.

My eyes slowly turned down to the dock, clicking on the small smiley that was my Yahoo messenger and then letting out a soft breath as it activated, then grasped the Nikon and opened it while I heard the sound signaling I had mail. Clicking on the messages sign with out much I thought, I took the memory card out of the Nikon and looked as Firefox opened up a window immediately into my Yahoo mail. Shoving the card into the side slot of the bottom of the laptop, I shut my eyes and leaned back rubbing the back of my neck as I felt a kink getting in it.

_Rather a kink than fangs._ My mind consoled to me. Rolling my eyes after opening them I growled softly to myself before looking back at the computer now with a scowl. It was part of the life of being what I am, but it was something I had long since gotten over. That little voice in my head that said all those nasty things, well as long as I existed, so would it. And as long as I killed vampires, it'd either sway in favor of it or not. It never cared either which way it went, just as long as it opposed what ever I was really thinking.

I hated it, but there was no better use for it, I suppose it was the only thing I had close to even something resembling a conscious these days.

Either way, it mattered not as I began to look over the mail while allowing my laptop to load onto the pictures. I didn't really take anything in before a name flashed across my sight that almost immediately hit an alarm.

_**Smada Leinad**_

My head felt funny for a moment, a feeling I usually only got when I was in trouble or about to be, before I looked over my shoulder, and around the room.

Seeing the door shut, locked, and rays of light still outside, despite the slow decreasing of them, I looked back at the screen and groaned loudly. Daniel Adams, he was my great great grandfather, and the representative for what one might say is our "Clan" of hunters. He also, had one foot and a half in the grave. Those of the Adams family, my family, were one of the older clans though. Not the oldest mind you, that title belonged to the Hellsing's known for the stubbornness, the Patrons, known for their bloodthirstiness and the Judas's, who held a dark history of working with in the Nazi's and originated somewhere before the Mongols. I think they descended from Cesar really. They went far back, my own clan was perhaps at best, only eight to nine hundred years old.

I didn't bother to think too much about how old the other clans were. How it turned out though, was in what they called the "council" where the hunters met, the Adams family were basically just the new kids that bred in with the other clans and decided they would annex themselves into their own.

I guess that's how I showed up into this little cluster-fuck of a family. My dad was and Adams, so my mom became one. She never really did any hunting though that I knew of. Nor did I care, I was just carrying on the family business, and playing the dog for them.

However Daniel Adams never contacted me, or any of the other footmen of the Adams family though, unless one of the following happened. One of us got turned, so we could track them down and get rid of them, or the Council had ruled on something that was important. As there were already so few of us left, I was betting it was the latter of the matter.

Selecting it, as the title of the letter read "utmost importance" I let out a low breath scanning the other address's this was to go to before letting my eyes drift down and with a sigh, began to read.

_With in the past few years the numbers of hunters have been decreasing with each month drastically, it will not be long now until we are extinct completely, or worse turned into the enemy. Due to this, in hopes of combating the turning process, hunting, and extermination of fellow hunters, the council has ruled to retract the peace act of the no harm - no kill ruling made after the great Revelation. Hunters are now to kill vampires and Weres on sight, however are not permitted to seek them out._

_** Constant vigilance and subtly is needed. All hunters from this point on in executing prey must now use a delicacy we have only needed since in the past before the G.R. **_

_Talk has been brought up of revealing ourselves towards the religious extremists known as the Light of Day Church, led by Steve and Sarah Newlin, the Council plans to meet on this as their finances, connections, and equipment may very well be useful towards us in the future given this ruling. If this is to occur, the Adams family will be pulling away from the Council along with the Patrons and the Hellsings, and a war will most likely break out between the clans._

_ This is the worst case Scenario. More will follow with in the next few weeks on this. Check your e-mail daily and do not under any circumstances form groups to attack nests, vampire gathering points, or any of the Were bars if you are given a mission to Execute with in the Mississippi Area. We are to maintain the discipline we have for centuries, so Do Not go off half cocked and take on more than you are capable of. We need our numbers now more than ever._

_Smada Leinad_

Though I was alone, and knew I was, and in a Ramada where the walls were usually a decent size enough to where I couldn't hear next door, the silence around me was so thick, and heavy, that I didn't even hear the small sound of someone messaging me over Yahoo. Glancing at the smiley face on the bottom of the screen bouncing, with a red, one on it, I clicked down and watched as another window opened.

My elder brother, Craig was on it seemed.

**Craig: What do you think?**

Widening my eyes and puffing out my cheeks, I let out a loud breath between them and let my shoulders slump, typing back my reply.

**Tracie: Ballsy.**

**Craig: Think we'll make it out of this one alive?**

I paused for a moment and stared. Craig, unlike me, was not a footman, he was information, he located the problems, and kept long lines of the family history from the vampires we killed, to where the first Adams showed up as a hunter. He however, if need be, would be sent out as a footman, if people were getting low.

**Tracie: It's all up in the air. Have the pictures for you. Sending.**

Quietly I pressed the send file and began to upload them off the memory card, seeing him accept and then start to download them, turning away from the computer I stared at the floor as my legs hung over the edge of the bed and shut my eyes before letting my hands come up to my eyelids and rubbed them feeling a small bit of fatigue wash over me.

_Tracie Adams, they don't pay you enough._

No, they most certainly did not. I looked over my shoulder at the laptop to see the files successfully sent, before shutting it and getting to my feet. With this new ruling in place, there would no doubt be many hunters that went out. Young ones, and old ones that were very cocky. Many of them would disobey, and do something stupid. And many of them would die, because of this.

Grasping my shoes I began to pull them on and let out a groan. Either way, armed or not. I was gonna get that drink I had been pondering on since back at that vampire nest.

I had a feeling I was _really_ gonna need it by the night's end.

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**A/N:** WHEW! Took me long enough. Between figurin' out what to do with this chapter, and playing around with several different ideas, I just didn't know where to go. But now I have some clue, or some general idea of where it might float about. I know it took me long enough, but please, stick around and I'll see ya next chapter again hopefully.


	6. Order Up!

**A/N:** And I'm here with another chapter for you my lovelies! I hope you enjoy this installment of Blood on the Rocks. **I've unfortunately had to restart this thing several times and have changed the pairings**…. (If that scares you and you want to split from this story now because Eric will not be AS involved with it, I get it. But what can I say, I dig the lumberjack wannabee werewolf and his scruffy jaw, and the brain wants what the brain wants.) I honestly think I can make this work a bit better with **Alcide**. Thank yous for reviewing will also be going out to **SharkGurl**,** NanamiYatsumaki**, **corbsxx**, **SerenadeInTheMoonlight**,and **Kate, Writer, Me,** **Sha, **and **Mixedmatched 9**.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the southern vampire chronicles but I do own Tracie Adams and her family.

* * *

**Order Up!**

_"From what we understand, there is a large amount of vampire activity based where you are…"_

The cold kiss of the Jack Daniel's bottle against my lip allowed the cool liquid to slip down into my mouth and down my throat as I gulped it down. Eyes lidded as the voice on the other side of the phone went quiet, static holding if only for a few seconds.

_"Tracie Adams, your orders are for you to move from New Orleans and now base yourself in Shreveport, Louisiana. Do you accept?"_

Slowly, I allowed the bottle in my hand to be placed back onto the bar coaster. Eyes staring up at the sign that was bright and held "Merlottes" behind the bar on the wall. I felt my heart pounding in my ears and something akin to rage rising up in me. My eyes narrowing slowly as I clenched my hand tightly onto the bottle and my chest tightening.

_"Tracie. Do you accept?" _

Sonuvabitch. They were transferring me out to here. They were placing me here, in this backwoods dump that would surround me with the proverbial vampires nest. I would be trapped; it was practically making me fanger bait!

_"Tracie?"_

"Yes." It didn't feel like me talking when I confirmed my orders, my hand clenched so tightly onto the cell phone though I heard as the plastic that cased it strained, "I'll take e'm." And right after I would take them to Daniel Adams and shove it straight up his-

_"Good. You have your orders; your new address will be given to you with in the next hour. Expect the text. The key will be left underneath a doormat. Happy hunting."_

I was going to kill someone. The line went dead on the other side and I shut my eyes slowly and let out a breath. It made sense to transfer me here… I was on the older end of the hunter's scale, I was of a more skilled nature, and aside from the Cedar Point incident, fangs hadn't touched my neck in years. With the new laws the heads of the family placed together with the kill on sight now reinstated, placing me down into the bears den to say was right on their list of "things to do that will get our footmen killed."

If I hadn't accepted as it was, they would have placed me somewhere worse than this backcountry, ho dunk town though. I should know, it was how I landed down in New Orleans to begin with when I was _first starting_. A wonderful thing to do for a rookie by the way. A low breath exited me and I shut my eyes slowly. It was bad enough I had to drive from Shreveport to Bon Temps, Louisiana to get an vampire unaffiliated cold drink. Only to figure out the pretty natural red head that was waiting tables was a goddamn vampire herself though. I hated taking my work on the side with my pleasure. She seemed pretty new to the undead though, so she didn't have a damn clue about me. A bonus really.

Which was fine with me. The elder ones were the ones you had to keep an eye out for. Vampires could sense when you did something wrong against them, so it was no surprise if an elder one jumped for my throat upon sight… if they were stupid. This little fledgling though seemed pretty innocent and ignorant. She would give me glances now and then, but other than that she didn't seem to mind my presence. I think she had the feeling instinctually, but she didn't know how to understand it yet.

Given my bad mood though and the fact I was waiting for a text of all things to find a house that I would be living at now… that was okay. Vampires didn't need to get in my way, otherwise I might do something extraordinarily stupid… such as kill one in front of a fine family establishment such as this filled to the brim with mostly human customers. Hunting when pissy was a good way to get yourself killed after all. And, even if I was willing to die for this job, I was all about the need to stay alive though. I always had been, and that was probably what allowed me to live to see the age of 27. Though if I was right, I would probably be turning 28 here in the next few days.

_You're getting up there Trace._ Silently I lifted my bottle to an unsaid toast before then taking three gulps of the substance. Getting up there tasted good. My eyes then shut before I let out a low breath and put the bottle down. I might as well be 89 in hunter years. 108 if I was accounting for the new laws the families just set up.

_What are they thinking?_ Honestly this flowed back to the Russel Edgington crap that went down two or three months ago. The damn vampire goes right onto national television, LIVE, and pulls a news caster's spine out of his back. Smart? I think not…

But in all actuality, it was probably a little good for us. People were afraid of them, it was easier to kill vampires when people didn't want them to be around to begin with.

"Can I get you another drink ma'am?" My eyes flicked up, staring ahead of me at the bartender. He had a pretty face, a little bit on the older scale, this wasn't some kid after all. In fact I was betting early thirties…. I glanced down at my Jack before slowly looking up and then sighing lightly and shaking my head.

"Nah, I think this'll do me for the night."

Actually that was a lie, getting shit faced seemed like the prime thing to do for me at the moment, but as I was going to receive a text of all things with my new orders… I almost rolled my eyes as he nodded and turned his back from me. I was still on the clock and thus Tracie Adams getting _drunk_ on her oh so lovable job was just the _best_ thing to do at the time.

Note the sarcasm.

Slowly I let out a breath and then finished off the Jack before turning and moving for the door out of Merlottes, my feet, boot covered still silently taking me outside where the humid Louisiana summer air hit my face. I slowly reached up and cupped my head with my face before my feet sauntered me right over to my Harley, me barely paying an ounce of attention. After worrying my hands down, I let out a breath and shook my head. There was a buzzing and vibration against my leg making me look down. Slowly I scowled in annoyance, before blinking a few times in comprehension and grasping up my phone.

The text was in then. Reading the address I let out a breath and slowly shut my eyes.

_Well Shreveport, get ready._

…..

It was perhaps 10 PM when I rolled up to the flat that I was going to be staying in for the duration of my orders. A slight bit of surprise moving through me while I killed the engine, there was a light on inside already. Usually I would be informed when I was going into an already inhabited area… I let out a breath and slowly lifted a leg from my bike before my feet met the concrete of the driveway and rechecked the number of the house. 606 on Jake's Lane… so I couldn't be in the wrong place, apprehension moved through me though as I reached into my saddle bag and let out a breath. The butt of the nine millimeter sliding slowly into my hand while the start of my staff accompanied the other. Pulling the keys from the ignition I allowed my tongue to dart over my dried lips as I pocketed them.

After confirming this was where I was supposed to be I would have to return to the hotel room to retrieve my belongings. Until then though, this was more important, plus, if I had to kill someone tonight it would be a good place to lay low.

_My my you do think just like a typical murderer don't you?_ My conscious inquired, I let out a low growl to myself before a female voice spoke up from above me making my body twist, gun pointed immediately as I scowled at my target.

"You're an Adams for sure. I can tell. Loud and obnoxious, heard you coming in from a mile away… I don't care what the other families think… you're just as unskilled as a civilian."

The Texan twang in it was what caught my attention first, followed by the knowledge of the families. Slowly my eyes turned up toward the woman that was sitting on the roof, a pair of dark green eyes staring back at me.

From where I stood, she looked perhaps to be in her early 20's. Her hair was red, curly and down to her shoulders. She was probably Irish or Scottish descent. A brown corset hugging her torso making her breasts prominent while a white button up long sleeve was left unbuttoned at the top underneath it to reveal the top of her breasts. A pair of hip hugger jeans clung to her legs as she wore platform pumps of all things on her feet.

Scratch the early 20's comment; she was more than likely in her late teens. I studied now her face and could make out with the faint light of the front porch the freckles across her face and the barbell earrings in her left ear along with the one on her upper lip. I think they called it a Madonna piercing.

Keeping her at gunpoint, I continued to scowl though, before letting out a growl, "Get your ass down here kid before I bring it down."

I watched her red lips pull into a smirk before she slowly pushed off the roof making me wince before she dropped to the ground in front of me.

"They told me you were coming. I didn't expect it to be another woman though. House isn't big enough for two honey."

Slowly I glared, before gesturing with the gun, "Get inside." Her lips pulled into a wide grin, no fangs… at least yet. But as she walked inside and I followed, I welcomed the feeling of the air conditioner that came out and rested against my head before I shut the door behind me. Her form turned to me as she shoved her hands into her back pockets.

"They say you're a footman, they put me on Were duty myself."

I quirked an eyebrow at this, Were duty? Was there was a distinct Were population here in Shreveport? I let out a low breath and then also looked her up and down again.

"Who… the hell are you?" I finally asked before lowering the gun slowly. However as I did so my other wrist flicked out, the staff extending in which I used it to jab the girl lightly on her bare cheek across from me, making her immediately bat at it. No smoke, no sizzling, no scream.

Not a vampire.

Okay then. I put my gun's safety on and pocketed it while leaning against my staff now staring at her.

"Sheesh, they didn't say you were paranoid too…" She grumbled before crossing her arms.

I rolled my eyes; I was definitely dealing with a damn rookie. Exhaling through my nose I slowly shut them. "It's kept me alive before now and it will keep me alive after now. Once again, who the fuck are you?" I then opened my eyes in a glare, "Or do I have to beat it out of you sweetie?"

She gained a sour look; I decided I kinda liked it a bit more than her earlier one, where she was talking down to me quite literally and being cocky.

"Laurie Patrons, and the day you can take me Adams is the day I die."

Oh good god.

Why a Patrons?

I shut my eyes and slowly breathed in, praying what ever might listen to my damned soul at the moment to grant me a little self-restraint from shoving this kid's face into the ground. Opening my eyes I allowed my head to rest against the staff, the cool metal comforting before I murmured easily, "And Why…. Laurie, are you in my home?"

"It's not your home dumbass. It's Mine. You're the new one here."

All right, I couldn't argue with that. I retracted the staff and allowed it to slip back into my coat. Then leaned forward lightly on my toes while crossing my arms before falling back onto my heels.

"So why am I being assigned to your home?"

"I don't know. They didn't say anything. My guess though would be that because Jean got killed a few days ago in a vampire nest raid, they wanted to replace him. He was the last vampire guy. Before him though was Bobbie, and Richard before that. Those guys were all Judas and Hellsings too. What is it with you vampire footmen and getting killed off? I mean the damn fangers aren't that hard to wack are they? Christ, what do you all raid those Light of Day bastards for if you can't even use their fucking bullets?"

I've decided.

I don't like Laurie. And if the rest of the Patrons family were anything like her, I probably wouldn't like them either. However at this point I kept my mouth shut as the teen simply continued, "Plus, you're an Adams, and yeah I mean the blood goes back, but those guys went Waaay back ya know? They had been in the vamp killin' biz for a helluva lot longer than your family has darling."

"Laurie." I watched her mouth shut and she seemed to almost perk up. Her eyes brightening and a small smile appearing immediately.

"Yes?"

"You talk to much. Shut the fuck up."

I've never seen a red head get madder than I did right then. Her mouth opening to yell; a foot to the stomach knocked her onto her ass as I passed her though and she sputtered instead. I couldn't help but smirk lightly; usually I wouldn't be this rude to another family member.

But this was a rookie. Moving to the fridge as though I had long since owned the place though, I opened it and grasped the first thing I saw that was appetizing. A peach. Biting into it I turned to her.

The look she was giving me could make grown men shit themselves. If she didn't open her mouth to me I might have actually felt threatened. Chewing and swallowing, I slowly waved a hand. "You said Weres. Is there a Were population here?"

"Tch. Why would it matter to you? They keep to themselves and they don't bother anyone."

"You haven't checked your email, have you kid?"

"I'm 21, and No."

"I'm almost seven years your senior. And you should have." I snapped back. I watched her eyes widen before scowling and tearing into the peach again. The juice moved down my jaw but I stuck my tongue out, licking it up and letting out a breath. "They've reinstated the kill on sight."

"For vampires?"

"For practically any supernaturals. Weres, vamps, the works." I replied back simply, eyes lidded for the moment. I had heard Patrons were at least the most blood thirsty out of all of us, however the little tart's forehead was scrunched and she was scowling.

"That's stupid. Since the vampires are killing us all off so quickly. Well, mostly you guys… the Weres around here try to stay uninvolved with the other supernaturals. My resources say that we got two new ones moving in here soon in fact."

I blinked, so 21 and she had resources, and no doubt contacts. That meant she had either been here a while, or she was skilled in building an information center of sorts on the supernatural population. Or someone in her family was. Usually the families didn't share information between them except at meetings, or in cases like this. I slowly shrugged lightly at the fact.

"Our heads are grasping from straws from the hay stack, it's not our job to think their smart but to do just what we're told. They're saying kill e'm all… they're starting to panic."

Laurie's eyes turned up to be before I felt a small smile come to my lips. "And they're gonna take us all down with them. S'part of the job."

"This job bites." She snapped. I couldn't help but grin wolfishly.

Okay, so maybe she wasn't so bad.

…..

Getting my stuff from the hotel room and checking out early was a lot easier than I thought. Though perhaps that was because half my stuff was flung around the room when I had gotten there, and with my new housemate… I guess one might call her a partner, two sets of eyes were better than one.

Someone had seen fit to go through my shit though, and I didn't really give enough time to think on if it was vampire or human. Thankfully they hadn't take the laptop though, as it had been locked away and secure when I had left. Also there had been nothing stolen… so they were looking for something in particular in my crap.

Or they were trying to spook me. I didn't particularly know nor did I care. But once I was in the kid's car and we were driving away from the motel, I felt a bit better about the fact. At most I had been gone four hours. At least, two. I couldn't tell, with the alcohol still in my system, though it had only been one bottle, I didn't really care either.

Something just wasn't right about the entire situation though, and it didn't take a genius to figure that one out. I would have to report it to big brother Craig at least, he would document it for further investigation. That all could wait until morning though at least. As far as I was concerned, I was done hunting and working for tonight.

So here I was now, sitting beside "Miss Thang" Laurie and listening to her talk about her work. God she liked to talk about it.

"It's mostly a community, they keep out of trouble like I said before and they don't mess around in other supernatural affairs. They don't recruit often either and they don't like humans to know what so ever. The werewolves out here are relatively easy going. They got a strict pack leader. I would rather deal with them though than the panthers over in Hotshot."

"Wait, Panthers?" I watched her nod and she then smiled.

"Honey I don't know where they sent you in from, but we got werepanthers and werewolves out the wazoo out here. The two don't affiliate and don't communicate. The panthers deal drugs from what I've heard and seen and the wolves jus' try and mainstream."

"And to top it all off-" She cut me off before I could continue.

"From what Jean said the sheriff of Louisiana or District what ever we are lives here in Shreveport. Jean went for a raid though and never came back, usually a good sign the man wound up dead somewhere."

_I probably was taking pictures of his corpse earlier in the day… _I thought bitterly before slowly laying back against the arm of the couch I was sitting on. The flat I was now to stay at had a living room with at least two, as well as several other different variance of furniture through out it. This one was leather though, and played well to my usually cheap tastes and normality of comfort.

"So Panthers on one side…" I raised a hand slowly and let out a breath. "Werewolves on the other…" Then opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling as my two hands splayed out into the air. "And vampires all over it all." And by all, I meant the public. They were out of the coffin and into the know. Werewolves, panthers, sure, that would be easier to dispatch than the blood sucking undead that people have come to know and were trying to either accept or deny into society.

"Yup. Welcome to the proverbial Hunter's Cluster Fuck Adams."

_If it weren't for the fact that you're here Patrons, and it's three in the god damn morning… _ I slowly let out a breath and rubbed my eyes as I felt the last bits of my sanity stored away from this day and this evening drift away, _I'd be calling old man Daniel Adams and ripping him a goddamn new ass hole until I had put him all the way in the fucking grave._

I don't know what the hell I did. But I felt as though I really stepped in it this time._  
_

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**A/N:** I know, I'm horrible and don't update frequently. I'm sorry about that but this was a story that I started, had an idea, died, had another idea, and died again. And now I have another idea! And it probably will not die for a while. That I can be pretty sure of. I wanted to figure out what the hell to do with Tracie. So if you wanna find out, stick around! It'll get interesting here in the next few chapters. So let me know what you think, and see ya again soon!


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